Brazil Eradicates Drug Crops in Peru

Brazilian police, working with their Peruvian counterparts, have conducted coca eradication operations in Peru as the Latin American superpower steps up its involvement in the regional war on drugs.

As part of the ongoing “Operacion Trapecio” (Operation Trapeze), Brazilian Federal Police eradicated 100 hectares of coca crops, the raw material for cocaine, in the Peruvian Amazon, near the tri-border area where Brazil, Peru and Colombia intersect, reported La Republica.

The head of the Brazilian police force’s organized crime division, Oslain Santana, stated, “Eliminating the plants is more efficient than simply seizing drug shipments. [These plantations] are near the Brazil border and are going to supply the Brazilian market.”

Brazil has become not only a major transit point for cocaine moving abroad, but has Latin America’s largest domestic market (up to 100 tons per annum), with Bolivia and Peru the major suppliers. Drug consumption has become one of the major threats to Brazilian security and prompted this nation to dedicate increasing resources to fighting narcotics trafficking.

InSight Crime Analysis

While the US is disengaging from South America in its war on drugs, concentrating its efforts on Central America and Mexico, Brazil has stepped up as a collaborator and provider of anti-narcotics aid and resources, working with Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. It is unlikely to be a coincidence that Brazil has increased its efforts in Peru, since the latter may well have overtaken Colombia as the world’s principal produce of cocaine.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, provided that it is attributed to InSight Crime in the byline, with a link to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Investigating organized crime is dangerous, expensive and important

About Us

InSight Crime is a foundation
dedicated to the study of the principal threat to national and citizen security in Latin America and the Caribbean: Organized Crime. We seek to deepen and inform the debate about organized crime in the Americas by providing the general public with regular reporting, analysis and investigation on the subject and on state efforts to combat it.